Alarm retrofit question

[AllEastCoast]

Hey ZHP mafia,

It's been a couple years since I've posted, but I have definitely spent many hours lurking on the site looking at everyone's beautiful projects and the extremely helpful DIYs on the site.

Now I've got a (seemingly) unique alarm install question, but first a little background that may be helpful. When my car was purchased new, we had the dealer code the car so that the clown nose would blink when the car was locked and the turn signals would flash when the car was locked/unlocked, BUT we didn't get an alarm installed at the time. While I never timed it, it seemed like the clown nose would take 30~60 seconds before it would start blinking after the car was locked, and then it would blink about ever 5~10 seconds.

Fast forward a few years. I installed an OEM alarm a couple weeks ago and immediately after the installation the car would chirp happily when it was locked or unlocked, but the motion and tilt sensors didn't function. At this point the clown nose still exhibited the same blinking pattern as before.

Today I took the car to my local dealer to have it activated. They programmed the car, said the programming was successful, but the alarm sensors still don't work. Now the clown nose still takes about 30~60 seconds before it starts blinking after the car is locked, and then subsequently blinks once every 2 seconds. The dealer said they would be willing to diagnose the problem (for a fee of course!), but by this point I was so irritated I brought the car home to do my own troubleshooting before paying their prices. It looks like everything is hooked up correctly, and sure enough the alarm still doesn't work. I tried waiving my arms around wildly inside the car after locking it and no alarm; I tried holding the hoodswitch down until the LED started blinking and then releasing it and no alarm. I checked the alarm fuses and then all look good.

So I think I've narrowed it down to 2 possibilities: the sensors are bad (bought them from ECS), or the computer in the car doesn't seem to like me. Since the LED doesn't seem to blink in the appropriate intervals, I'm guessing the internal computer is messed up. As some added evidence, I've tried clicking the remote lock button twice (to deactivate the motion and tilt sensors), and again, the LED doesn't blink appropriately. The Bentley's manual seems to suggest that pressing the lock button twice should make the LED stay on for 1 second before starting its flash sequence; in my case, it does nothing.

Any thoughts? I figured I would ask y'all before I bring it back into the dealer and accuse them of screwing something up.

[danewilson77]

:lurk

Good seeing you around.

[Tnhl1989]

I believe that I am in the same situation. I removed the alarm from my 330xi to put into the ZHP however it would seem that the alarm isn't working fully. I have a feeling that it could possibly be a setting on NCSexpert or something to set it to work correctly. Originally I programmed it so that PASOFT would activate the alarm. Majority of the functions work expect for the sensor. I never really notice it in 330xi since I never really had any incidents with people breaking in or myself just reaching into the car. I'll try to research more on this matter.

[JupiterBMW]

Two things to mention. My ZHP had factory alarm and it was very flaky, and it would go off at random while locked... Turned out to be a bad hood sensor... I think a combination of age and the heat wears this sensor out early, so try replacing it. I picked one up at the dealer for $30. Obviously, easy to swap out too...

Also, perhaps try using your other remote? Just a couple days ago, my main remote started acting flaky, like either the lock button was wearing out, or the battery was dying... So, might be something to check out as well...

That's all I've got for help, sorry I couldn't offer more...

Side note, your sig pic is awesome, almost as awesome as the fleet of Bimmers you've got! :thumbsup

[AllEastCoast]

Two things to mention. My ZHP had factory alarm and it was very flaky, and it would go off at random while locked... Turned out to be a bad hood sensor... I think a combination of age and the heat wears this sensor out early, so try replacing it. I picked one up at the dealer for $30. Obviously, easy to swap out too...

Also, perhaps try using your other remote? Just a couple days ago, my main remote started acting flaky, like either the lock button was wearing out, or the battery was dying... So, might be something to check out as well...

That's all I've got for help, sorry I couldn't offer more...

Side note, your sig pic is awesome, almost as awesome as the fleet of Bimmers you've got! :thumbsup

Ah, those are a couple small things I haven't tried, I'll try the other remote tomorrow morning and see what happens. As far as the hood sensor, I'm assuming that wouldn't show up with a fault code reader? (just because I was trying to exhaust all possibilities, I checked and there were no fault codes on the car). Either way it's cheap enough that I may go ahead and replace it anyway. Would that cause the whole alarm system to fail? even the interior motion sensor and tilt sensor?

Tnhl - its good to hear that I'm not in this boat alone. I'd prefer to use a personal coding system rather than the dealer just so I could actually see whether or not the alarm is actually activated. Unfortunately I really can't justify spending a couple hundred bucks just to make the alarm work properly.

P.S. thanks for the sig complement! I wish I could claim the whole stable of beasts, but only the black beauty in the front is mine. My dad and I just lined up the family rides when I was visiting.

[sillieidiot]

have you tried using the panic button at all to see if it will even go off?

when you are testing the interior sensor, how long are you waiting? should be like 30 secs to a minute. make sure you only press the lock button once. if you press it a second time within 15 seconds of locking, you are disabling the interior sensor, so it won't go off.

the tilt one is pretty easy to check, just jack up the car. and i guess hood you already tested. but if you wanted to do it again, just pop the hood, but don't open it yet. then lock the car. after you waited long enough, lift the hood and it will go off.

i think my clown nose blinks super fast (because the door/trunk is open), then like 5-10 seconds (after you close them) later it will start to blink the normal rate of about ever 2 seconds.

[AllEastCoast]

Yeah I tried the panic button and the alarm does work. I also made sure to wait a couple minutes even before testing the interior sensor, but to no avail. Since I was checking the connections anyway, I just went into the trunk and tested the tilt sensor by closing the trunk, waiting a few seconds, then reaching back from the back seat and tilting the sensor itself. It also didn't work.

I may be making a mountain out a molehill, but as I said before, my clown nose never blinks quickly like you said. I'm assuming you have an alarm silliidiot? If someone who does not have an alarm, but does have their clown nose programmed to blink could run out and try locking/unlocking their car, could y'all let me know what it does? If it takes 30+ seconds before it starts blinking, then I think that might be pretty good evidence that the dealer simply screwed up and didn't actually activate the alarm.

[telijah]

I have the clown nose blinking without an alarm, and yes, after locking the car and the turn signals flashing, after a short period of time it starts to blink slowly, but not 30 seconds after... It blinks roughly once per 5-10 seconds.

[sillieidiot]

yeah i have an alarm. but that is with the door open. that's is for some reason the only time i look at it lol i think when all the doors are closed, it takes like 10 seconds for it to start blinking. then it blinks once every 2 seconds. 5 seconds is too long i feel like. i'll go time it lol

edit:
ok, it starts blinking normal immediately when locking. then every 2 seconds.

but it does sound like the dealer didn't code it correctly. probably didn't enable to two sensors

[Tnhl1989]

Hey guys,

So update on everything now. I have got everything working in my car. I first went through NCS expert and coded the whole car to default stock settings which also fixed all the changes to the LCM since it wasn't the factory LCM. For some reason as well the passenger mirror stopped tilting when I put it in reverse which was fixed as well. So after going through all the stock settings and trying to code the alarm stuff with NCS expert which didn't worked I went back to PASOFT. Check off all the settings and tested it. Everything work including the interior sensor. Some notes on the interior sensor is that it takes about a minute for it to activate. I left the car, press the unlock to open up the front windows and sunroof (programmed through NCS as that's how I like it) waited 30's and nothing. Gave it another 30's and it tripped. So that's the update on the interior sensor. I suggest stocking out your car then re-code everything again.

[Dave_B]

Good to know you got it all worked out. :thumbsup

[sillieidiot]

i'm confused, i thought this thread was for alleastcoast? lol

[AllEastCoast]

Good to hear you got everything working again! I haven't had a chance to mess with it recently, and I likely won't get a chance to start tinkering again for a week or so, but that is definitely good information to know. I think my first step is going to be calling the dealership to see what they have to say about it. Since I already paid them to activate this alarm, I'm going to have them hook it back up to their computer to make sure they actually did change the alarm settings. If that doesn't do it, then I'll have to start wondering if one of the sensors in my retrofit kit is defective.

[NorCalZman]

Any updates AllEastCoast?



Two things to mention. My ZHP had factory alarm and it was very flaky, and it would go off at random while locked... Turned out to be a bad hood sensor... I think a combination of age and the heat wears this sensor out early, so try replacing it. I picked one up at the dealer for $30. Obviously, easy to swap out too...

Also, perhaps try using your other remote? Just a couple days ago, my main remote started acting flaky, like either the lock button was wearing out, or the battery was dying... So, might be something to check out as well...

That's all I've got for help, sorry I couldn't offer more...

Side note, your sig pic is awesome, almost as awesome as the fleet of Bimmers you've got! :thumbsup

Jon, do our cars have the hood sensor installed already? I did not see a "hood sensor" included in the retrofit kit.

[AllEastCoast]

Any updates AllEastCoast?

None so far. My timing for this was terrible, I have to finish off a round of exams before I can focus on getting this fixed. I'm going to start tinkering again next week to see what I can come up with.

And yeah the hood sensor is already in the car. Passenger side, close to the firewall, it just looks like a little black button.

[JupiterBMW]

I am not 100% sure. Easy to check though. Pop the hood and in the passenger side 'drug bin' right near the weather stripping, you'll see a little pop-up button thing with an electrical connector attached. That is the hood sensor.

If you don't have one, I recommend replacing with a new unit, OEM quality only. I got mine at the dealer for about $30.